Mumbai, July 18: The central railway is planning to convert all its 12-coach trains into 15 coach ones and a Rs 1,000-crore project, which also involves the overhauling of coaches, has been approved by the Ministry of Railways for the same. At present, only one local train plying on the central railway line that has 15 coaches, which gives 16 services a day on the fast route. The work will be implemented under the Mumbai Urban Transport Project Phase 3A with an aim to improve Mumbai railways, fondly known as the city's lifeline. Under the project, all the 12-coach local trains will be converted into 15 coaches.

The Union Government has instructed the central railways to prepare a detailed report so that the plan could be taken forward once it is approved. The Central Railway officials believe that if the proposal gets a nod, then it will provide a major relief to Mumbaikars, especially commuters travelling  from distant suburbs such as Ambarnath and Badlapur.

Besides this, the report also mentions how different associations working for the betterment of rail services in the city like Mumbai Rail Pravasi and Rail Yatri Parishad have been demanding converting the 12-coach local trains into 15-coach ones. However, due to financial constraints, the proposal took time. But now as the project proposal is in the final stage, the associations are expecting some good news for Mumbai rail commuters.

As per the available data, every year, one lakh commuters are added to the crowd who use the local services on a daily basis. This increases the risk of travelling in Mumbai local trains, which already has a substantial existing crowd to tackle.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 18, 2018 03:24 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).